P-type Al-doped Cr-deficient CrN thin films for thermoelectrics

Arnaud Le Febvrier (1) , Ngo van Nong (2) , Grégory Abadias (3) , Per Eklund (4)

1 IFM - Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology [Linköping]
2 Department of Energy Conversion and Storage
3 PPNa - Physique et Propriétés des Nanostructures [Institut Pprime]
4 PPrime [Poitiers] - Institut Pprime [UPR 3346]

Thermoelectric properties of chromium nitride (CrN)-based films grown on c-plane sapphire by dc reactive magnetron sputtering were investigated. In this work, aluminum doping was introduced in CrN (degenerate n-type semiconductor) by co-deposition. Under the present deposition conditions, over-stoichiometry in nitrogen (CrN1+δ) rock-salt structure is obtained. A p-type conduction is observed with nitrogen-rich CrN combined with aluminum doping. The Cr0.96Al0.04N1.17 film exhibited a high Seebeck coefficient and a sufficient power factor at 300 °C. These results are a starting point for designing p-type/n-type thermoelectric materials based on chromium nitride films, which are cheap and routinely grown on the industrial scale.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Matériaux et structures en mécanique [physics.class-ph]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Automatique / Robotique; Electromagnétisme; Milieux fluides et réactifs; Energie électrique; Thermique [physics.class-ph]; Vibrations [physics.class-ph]; Physique mathématique [math-ph]; Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Biomécanique [physics.med-ph]; Matériaux; Polymères

Arnaud Le Febvrier, Ngo van Nong, Grégory Abadias, Per Eklund. P-type Al-doped Cr-deficient CrN thin films for thermoelectrics. Applied Physics Express, 2018, 11 (5), pp.051003. ⟨10.7567/APEX.11.051003⟩. ⟨hal-02311227⟩